


Chilblains

by GuyOfShy



Series: Scatterings of White Roses and Sightings of Bumblebees [23]
Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, Gloomy White Rose angst, White Rose - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-06
Updated: 2016-07-06
Packaged: 2018-07-21 22:59:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7408609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GuyOfShy/pseuds/GuyOfShy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Weiss mourns the fact that every rose, including Ruby Rose, has its thorns. After being retrieved by her father, she now feels the sorrowful sting accompanying her solitude.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chilblains

The snow fell so freely. Carried by the brisk winds outside the window of Weiss’ bedroom. She solemnly stared out of it, watching the flakes getting caught on and clumping against the bare tree branches.

Under the midmorning light the air seemed so fresh and pure out there.

She drummed her fingers near the lock. When Weiss had described her previous life to her teammates as being placed under house arrest, she never dreamed it would have actually happened. The star of the Schnee family, reduced to an amateur Huntress who had been poached from her friends by her own father.

Not friends, according to her father.

_‘Not so long as being with them involves putting you in danger of any sort.’_

Weiss slumped back down on her bed, hands against the side of the mattress. She felt so tired. Tired of being by herself. Tired of the cold. Tired of her room, and aching for the dorm, for her teammates.

An image of Ruby slides near in her mind. She’s just smiling, with those sparkling silver eyes. And she turns and slides over and now Weiss is seeing herself holding hands with Ruby, following her. To a café in Vale she had wanted to show her, and eventually to a kiss.

Weiss pushed the thought away as she pushed out a heavy breath. It bore down too heavily on her heart. She pushed it away just like her father had pushed everything else away from her.

Any object deemed rebellious or as an object that would allow for rebellion was ousted from Weiss’ room without hesitation. She was without Myrtenaster; a naively dulled replacement had been issued to her for her training. Wooden and weakened. Weiss herself also fell into that category of being rebellious, however, which was not something that could be ripped from her being on a whim. Her father had explained that would come with time. Not by melting, but through molding.

Weiss certainly felt like she was melting. Falling apart, drifting, diving down into a deep-seated depression. Her ice had lost its Schnee brand gleam. Her fencing had dulled. Her heart froze harder than ever but she still shivered so cold inside.

She wished that Ruby would come rescue her. Or for the rest of RWBY to come and bust her out of this prison. Then again, Yang was more than likely out of commission for the time being, and that more than likely benched Blake as well. Especially seeing how distraught she was over the incident between them and Adam. And if Yang was down, there was some chance Ruby would be as well - not to mention how long she had been incapacitated after what happened at the spire.

She didn’t even get to say goodbye. Or get another chance to say she loved her. Or at least to give her hand a reassuring squeeze.

That alone was enough to force tears to well up.

But she pushed them back down. Ruby, she sighs. Ruby Rose.

Even the name sounded cold now, like it was frozen in stasis. Ruby wouldn’t be coming any time soon. Saying it or shouting it or screaming it at the top of her lungs wouldn’t mean anything.

Sometimes Weiss felt frozen too. Trapped in a solitary space where she could find no warmth, her movements restricted, left only with her thoughts. Where her heart was the only thing delivering warmth to her, recycling her feelings with her breath.

Curse her father. Could he not see what he was doing?

Footsteps would erupt near her door. Her father’s footsteps, she feared. Or Winter’s, bound to their father’s word, no matter how bad she may have felt for her younger sister. And the world would turn silent while she listened.

And she would wilt, as with the rose in her hand.

Just checking on her.

Since she intended to rebel in every situation she could, Weiss had stuck to forming roses instead of modeling larger forms for her summoning. They had littered her room at times when she had been unwilling to study or practice other aspects of her Semblance or fencing. She would sit with her knees drawn to her chest, one arm around them and the other crystallizing the flower in front of her. Budding, blooming, and melting.

She watched them come and go with a lazy, or heavy, or empty stare, for minutes at a time. To the point where she would turn back around to find that one had spontaneously froze up without her knowledge of ever creating it. Once, after waking up in the morning, she had even found one lying bloomed on the other pillow.

Where Ruby used to sleep. Inside the icy walls of her heart and inside her personal space, where no one had ever been allowed entry.

But this wasn’t the dorm room. This wasn’t Beacon. And though that rose shared Ruby’s name, it wasn’t Ruby. Now that Weiss was back at home, the supposed safety of the four walls of her room, it wasn’t the same.

Frost gathered in the corners and was scattered in cracking patches on the walls. Icicles dripped from the curtains. Decorated her desk.

But Weiss didn’t care. She didn’t care about her room or her father or her Schnee name or her inheritance or her status. She only cared about Ruby and RWBY and Beacon and her friends and the world that was currently in danger. Not her family, as cold as it was to say that. There were things more important than that at stake.

Lives. Other families. Cultures. She knew all this but was so powerless against the authority of her father, who also had some stake in the Atlesian military. If necessary, he could surely hire guards to prevent her from running away.

Or he could recruit Winter to track her down.

That wasn’t a thought that Weiss wanted to entertain. Fighting her sister was the last thing she wanted to do; when it wasn’t one of their sisterly sparring matches, at least.

Ruby used to spar with her. Back at Beacon.

Beacon.

Ruby.

Ruby Rose.

Leader of Team RWBY, best friend, girlfriend… she could hold all these titles that Weiss so deeply respected, and all she had to live up was Schnee.

 _‘But aren’t you my best friend too Weiss? Not to mention my girlfriend,’_ Ruby would say. She’d giggle. Weiss might blush, but she would always smile.

Weiss wasn’t smiling anymore. If she could, she hadn’t felt a need to since returning home. Her lips, cheeks, face remained frozen, colorless and taut.

She grimaced. It reminded her too much of her father.

She couldn’t wait to see Ruby. She knew they would meet again; that event was already solidified in time. The red string of fate, the invisible hand, destiny, had proven that it wouldn’t allow them to be apart. When it did they were always reunited, woven more tightly together every time. When Weiss finally saw her again, she would show her a smile bigger than ever.

She practiced it. Her jaw felt sore.

At the very least she would blush when the blood finally rushed back to her cheeks.

**Author's Note:**

> Just something I came up with when I was feeling blue some time ago. Sorry it took so long to get out, I’ve been distracted by other things lately. This fic could have been done with literally any other character but I’m aboard the White Rose so, White Rose.
> 
> Obviously I don’t know anything about Weiss’ life at home, so I went with the general assumption. I get that the spontaneous ice formation in her room isn’t something that would happen at her current stage (I first imagined this as them having spent years at Beacon [the cold aura is a favorite Weiss headcanon of mine], but the way Volume 3 unfolded made it all too convenient to start there). And I hope the focus on missing Ruby wasn’t too overbearing to the point where it sounded creepy. I had the idea and I just developed it as I went along and vented myself.
> 
> So this was a thing. Thanks for reading as always, I hope you enjoyed it, and go read something fluffy now by someone that isn’t me so this doesn’t leave a bad taste in your mouth :)


End file.
